A fruitful cross-border collaboration from the Scottish Ensemble and its long-time collaborator, Toby Spence. The Ensemble makes convincing work of Finzi’s winsome West Country Romance, all rising mists and slightly cloying country views, but it’s the idiosyncratic Dies Natalis that impresses. Agile and affecting, Spence is well made for this role, ranging from whispered innocence to broader, manlier swash. To finish, Walton’s fine string orchestra arrangement of his Quartet in A Minor resonates under the burnished Scottish Ensemble strings. The Allegro Molto is driven with expressive attack, if in its final moments oddly suggestive of Nigel Kennedy let loose on an Orkney folk night.
(Wigmore Hall Live)